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Former President Donald Trump is facing outrage after appearing to suggest that he would end elections in the US if he’s re-elected while speaking to a Christian audience.
Towards the end of his speech at the Believers Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida on Friday, Trump said, “Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore … You got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.”
Many Democrats interpreted the comments as Trump being prepared to put an end to American democracy.
California Representative Adam Schiff, a Senate candidate in the fall, shared a clip on X of Trump’s comments: “This year democracy is on the ballot, and if we are to save it, we must vote against authoritarianism. Here Trump helpfully reminds us that the alternative is never having the chance to vote again.”
“This. Is. Terrifying. We cannot let this be the case,” Washington Representative and the chair of the progressive caucus Pramila Jayapal said on the platform.
“The only way ‘you won’t have to vote anymore’ is if Donald Trump becomes a dictator,” New York Representative Dan Goldman said.
But the Trump campaign claimed the comments were about uniting the country.
Trump “was talking about uniting this country and bringing prosperity to every American, as opposed to the divisive political environment that has sowed so much division and even resulted in an assassination attempt,” a spokesperson told The Washington Post.
Shortly before his comments on voting on Friday, Trump said that Democrats don’t want to “approve” voter ID laws “because they want to cheat. But until then, Republicans must win … We want a landslide that’s too big to rig.”
Trump has continued to make his evidence-free claims that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen from him.
Meanwhile, the Harris campaign has said that Trump’s statement was a promise to “end democracy.”
In a press release on Saturday, campaign spokesperson James Singer said American democracy is “under assault” by Trump.
“After the last election Trump lost, he sent a mob to overturn the results. This campaign, he has promised violence if he loses, the end of our elections if he wins, and the termination of the Constitution to empower him to be a dictator to enact his dangerous Project 2025 agenda on America,” he added.
Project 2025 is a 900-page document developed by a conservative think tank putting forward policy proposals for the next Republican in the White House. While the Trump campaign and the former president himself have attempted to put some distance between the document and the campaign, many Trump allies and former members of his administration took part in its development.
Trump made similar comments in front of a Christian audience last month at a Faith and Freedom Coalition event in Washington.
“You’ve got to get out and vote, just this time. I don’t care, in four years, you don’t have to vote, ok? In four years, don’t vote,” he said at the time. “I don’t care, by that time ... we’ll have it all straightened out, so it’ll be much different.”
